Career path advice

EllePNto2b · Sep 13, 2015

Thanks for the advice ! It's not easy to get a job in that field at the moment especially while in school. However I'll keep an open mind on how work my way into it thanks ^^

fauxpaus · Sep 14, 2015

Honestly there are a lot of factors here. There are hospitals that will hire dedicated scrub techs, who go to school exclusively to be a scrub tech. Scrub NURSES are a lot more uncommon, at least where I am. I work at a level 1 trauma center in SoCal, big OR....the very few RNs who can also "scrub" are older (50+) and mostly trained in the Philippines (not making an anti-Filipino comment at all, please don't misunderstand, it's just that apparently 20% of California RNs were Filipino - and I'm not pulling that number out of thin air, here's a page 361 of this book "Global Health Nursing in the 21st Century" which is available on google books). At any rate, the point is that most hospitals that I know of won't truly train you to scrub, at least not fully...my hospital gave us all a couple weeks of "scrub training" in case of some epic emergency . Scrub techs go to school for 2 years to learn to scrub, there's no way that the typical OR RN without formal scrub training from a school can scrub with even an iota of the proficiency. Not only that, let's just use some random numbers based on the knowledge that scrub techs are paid considerably less than an RN. Hiring a scrub tech costs a hospital oh, 20$/hr, whereas hiring an RN costs 35$/hr. It doesn't make economic sense for a hospital to pay an RN to do a job that a scrub tech could do for a heck of a lot less. If you know how to scrub already, coming into the workforce, that's awesome and then you're a multipurpose extra useful RN who can circulate or scrub depending on department needs.

Ok, so all of that being said, if you're currently in LPN/LVN school and want to scrub I don't know what the best route is for you. If you have an option to go to scrub tech school now, you might be able to get through and then start working as a scrub tech, maybe get your RN or BSN on the side. Or I guess you could do it the other way around. You didn't say whether or not you're interested in being a scrub tech because it sounds like fun, or you've actually seen it, etc. If you haven't seen a surgery up close and personal, and watched what scrub techs do, I would definitely recommend shadowing before committing to anything...

ChrisNZ · Sep 14, 2015

I have to say it sounds awfully hard to break into scrubbing as a new RN in the US. In New Zealand I work in a private hospital and we have an all RN work force in our theatres. Depending on the list we have 2-4 RN's assigned to a theatre. We all take turns as surgical assistant, scrubbing, circulating which is great! Because somedays scrubbing just seems like the worst job and other days I can't look at paperwork and just want to scrub!

pixiestudent2 · Sep 15, 2015

My hospital is really in need of scrub techs... So they are teaching the RNs how to scrub.

Blossom7 · Sep 19, 2015

Where I live there are not scrub nurses. The nurses in the OR are circulator nurses. The scrubbing is done by Surgical Techs and they go to school for 2 years for their degree. You need to check around your area to see if what you want can be obtain. It would be sad and disappointing that after finishing your degree you won't be able to set the path for your goals. I think the closes thing to a scrub nurse is a RN First Assistant (RNFA is a perioperative registered nurse who functions in an expanded role, working in collaboration with the surgeon and health care team members to achieve optimal patient outcomes.). You should check it out. It is good to have options open.